View
- Term
- Definition
- Both Sides
Study
- All (65)
Shortcut Show
Next
Prev
Flip
MANA 3320:Study Guide
Training |
an organization's planned efforts to help employees acquire job-related knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors |
Why is employee training important? |
Why is employee training important? hired employees rarely have perfect skills and abilities for the job.
Nature of today's business environment makes training important. Rapid change requires that employees continually learn new skills.
Growing reliance on teamwork creates a demand for the ability to solve problems in teams, an ability that often requires formal training. |
Instructional design |
an effective training program is designed to teach skills and behaviors that will help the organization achieve its goals |
What are the major stages of instructional design? |
Assess needs for training
Ensure readiness for training
Plan training program (objectives, trainers, methods)
Implement training program (principles of learning, transfer of training)
Evaluate results of training
(feedback at every stage) |
Needs assessment: definition |
process of evaluating the organization, individual employees, and employees' tasks to determine what kinds of training, if any, are necessary |
Three questions assessment answers... |
What is the context in which training will occur? (organization analysis) Who needs training? (person analysis)
What subjects should training cover? (task analysis) |
Understand what are organization analysis |
looks at training needs in light of 1. The organization's strategy. 2. Resources available for training. 4. Management's support for training activities. |
person analysis |
involves answering three questions. 1. Do performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or ability? 2. Who needs training? 3. Are these employees ready for training? |
task analysis |
are these employees ready for training? |
Creating readiness for training |
a combination of employee characteristics and positive work environment that permit training |
necessary employee characteristics |
ability to learn subject matter, favorable attitudes toward training, motivation to learn |
On-the-job training |
the most common method used for training non-managerial employees |
On-the-job training advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. offers hands-on learning experiences in the actual work situation. 2. High transferability of learning outcomes. 3. Contributing to productivity while being trained.
Disadvantages: 1. Mistakes made during training have real negative impacts on organization performance and a trainee's career. 2. Quality varies substantially by trainer. |
Simulations |
an excellent training method when the information to be mastered is complex, the equipment used on the job is expensive, and/or the cost of a wrong decision is high. (pilot training, disaster response training) |
Simulations advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. Offers hands-on learning experiences in an environment that is designed to mimic the real work situation. 2. High transferability of learning outcomes. 3. Trainees are not afraid of the impact of wrong decisions.
Disadvantage: can be expensive to design a simulator with elements that are identical to those found in the work environment. |
Computer-based training |
computers are often used to provide training and can come in many types ranging from a CD-ROM to training over the Internet (E-learning) |
Computer-based training advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. Cost effective. 2. Provides for a high degree of transfer back to the job if a job requires extensive use of computers. 3. Allows trainees to learn at a comfortable pace. 4. Allows access to training materials from multiple places.
Disadvantages: 1. Learning outcomes depend on trainees' computer skills levels. 2. May not easily transfer back to job when the real job situation involves important non-computer-related components (e.g., social interaction). Hence, e-learning is most effective when combined with other forms of training. |
Team training |
Cross-training
coordination training
team leader training |
Cross-training |
helps employees to perform operations in areas other than their assigned job. It makes current workers more versatile and can help to add variety to their jobs. Normally this is done on the job by peer trainers who can be used to provide cross-training. |
Coordination training |
is used to help teams become more effective. The main types include content tasks, group processes and training for virtual teams. Content tasks training is focused on tasks that directly relate to a team's goals (e.g. cost control or problem solving). Group processes pertain to the way members function as a team (e.g. how they behave toward one another or how they resolve conflicts.) |
Team leader training |
help to develop the skills necessary for team leadership (such as resolving conflicts, coordinating activities). |
Transfer of training |
on-the-job use of knowledge, skills, and behaviors, learned in training |
How to measure transfer of training |
ask three questions. 1. Do you perform the task? 2. How many times do you perform the task? 3. To what extent do you perform difficult and challenging learned tasks |
What are the reasons for poor transfer of training? |
1. The organization does not fully support the training activities in general. 2. The employee's supervisor does not provide opportunities to apply new skills. 3. Lack of transfer can also mean that employees have not learned the course material. In this case, the organization might offer a refresher course to give trainees more practice. 4. Another reason for poor transfer of training is that the content of the training may not be important for the employee's job. This likely results from poor training needs assessment. |
3 steps in performance appraisal |
identification
measurement
management |
Identification |
determines what areas of work the manager should be examining when measuring performance.
Measurement dimension that represents one aspect of performance, should be based on job analysis, quality, quantity, interpersonal skills. |
Measurement |
is making managerial judgments about how "good" or "bad" employee performance was |
Management |
the overriding goal of any appraisal system. Appraisals should be more than a past-oriented activity that criticizes or praises workers for their previous performance. It must take a future-oriented view of what workers can do to achieve their potential in the organization. |
What are the purposes of performance appraisal? |
strategic purpose
administrative purpose
developmental purpose |
strategic purpose |
effective performance management helps the organization achieve its business objectives |
administrative purpose |
ways in which organizations use the system to provide information for day-to-day decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition programs |
developmental purpose |
serves as a basis for developing employees' knowledge and skills |
Major types of appraisal methods |
The comparison approach
Trait/attribute approach
Behavioral approach
Outcome/results approach |
The comparison approach |
comparing employees with each other (ranking, forced-distribution) |
The comparison approach advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. It counteracts the tendency to rate everyone favorably or near the center of the scale. 2. Can by easy to use.
Disadvantages: 1. It does not provide any absolute information, so managers cannot determine how good or poor employees actually are. 2. It can forces managers to identify differences among workers where no real difference exists which can cause conflict among workers. 3. The basis for the ranking is not clear, which makes it difficult for employees to understand and unhelpful for developmental purposes.
Most HR specialists believe the disadvantages outweigh the advantages |
Trait/attribute approach |
(focusing on the person): rating the level of an employee's personal traits or characteristics (initiative, leadership, attitude, decisiveness, dependability) |
Trait/attribute approach advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: relatively easy to develop and implement
Disadvantages: 1. It is ambiguous and subjective. Definitions of a trait (dependability, conscientiousness) can differ dramatically across supervisors. 2. It focuses on the person rather than on performance and can therefore make employees defensive. 3. It is not very helpful for performance development. |
Behavioral approach |
measuring specific and observable behaviors that an employee must exhibit to be effective on the job (BARS...) |
Behavioral approach advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. Standards are unambiguous and observable behaviors. 2. More objective and more legally defensible than trait scales. 3. It provides employees with specific examples of the types of behaviors to engage in or to avoid. It also encourages supervisors to be specific in ther performance feedback. 4. Employee acceptance is high.
Disadvantages: 1. Developing behavioral scales can be time consuming. 2. It does not work as well for complex jobs in which it is difficult to see a link between behavior and results or there is more than one good way to achieve success. |
Outcome/results approach |
measuring the outcomes accomplished by the individual or work team (sales volume, profits) |
Outcome/results approach advantages and disadvantages |
Advantages: 1. It provides clear and unambiguous criteria by which worker performance can be judged. 2. It provides objective criteria that are less subject to human biases. 3. It can be easily linked to the strategic goal of organization.
Disadvantages: 1. It may not be valid when performance results are significantly affected by external circumstances that are beyond an employee's control. 2. It may create a "results at any price" mentality that can lead employees to disregard ethics in the conduct of their job. 3. It does not provide guidance on how to improve. |
Scheduling performance feedback |
performance feedback should be regular, expected management activity, annual feedback is not enough, employees should receive feedback so often that they know what the manager will say during their annual performance review |
Preparing for a feedback session |
managers should be prepared for each formal feedback session |
Conducting the feedback session |
feedback sessions, managers can take any of three approaches: tell-and-sell, tell-and-listen, problem solving |
tell and sell |
managers tell employees their rating and then justify those ratings |
tell and listen |
managers tell employees their rating and then let employees explain their side of the story |
problem solving |
managers and employees work together to solve performance problems |
Which approach is most popular |
Most managers rely on the tell-and-sell approach. Research demonstrates that the problem solving approach produces the best results. |
employee development |
combination of formal education, job experiences, relationships, and assessment of personality and abilities to help employees prepare for the future of their careers. |
succession planning |
process of identifying and tracking high-potential employees who will be able to fill top management positions. Process of developing future leaders for the organization. |
Challenges in career development |
Who will be responsible? - increasingly responsibility shifted to employees: today we see more and more that individual employees are expected to take an active role in their own development.
How much emphasis on employee career development is appropriate? - too much emphasis can be harmful to organizational effectiveness: employees with extreme career orientation can become more concerned about their own interest rather than the interest of the organization |
Four types of career path |
linear, expert, spiral, transitory |
linear |
a series of upward steps and advancement on a single career track |
expert |
focusing on developing technical competence in a particular field |
spiral |
defined by periodic major career moves with a focus on personal development & increased knowledge |
transitory |
frequent moves that cut across unrelated occupations or discipline, a path that is characterized by variety and independence |
voluntary turnover |
turnover initiated by employees, often when the organization would prefer to keep them |
involuntary turnover |
turnover initiated by an employer, often with employees who would prefer to stay |
Costs associated with turnover |
involuntary: recruiting, selecting, training replacements, lost productivity, lawsuits, workplace violence. Voluntary: recruiting, selecting, training replacements, lost productivity, loss of talented employees |
Job satisfaction |
a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences |
consequences of high job satisfaction |
low absenteeism, low voluntary turnover, more organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), better worker well-being |
the three steps to improve job satisfaction |
measure it! Identify the causes, work on the causing factors |
job structure |
relative pay for different jobs within the organization |
pay level |
averages amount the organization pays for a particular job |
Pay structure |
pay policy resulting from job structure and pay-level decisions |